Today's writing takes my breath away. I guess because I have been following all along and expected to begin to learn some of the truths of the conditions for students and their schools. You research awes me. I don't like learning about the suffering of children, but I am not surprised. No matter who causes these evil practices, they carry a deep wound. It is always especially troubling to recognize practices from formalized religions. P.S. I've just read Mary Roblyn's comment, and I feel the same about the story of Chanie.
Thanks for following along each week. More than trauma, this is a story of survivance. Survivance is a word coined by Gerald Vizener to convey both resistance and survival.
Seeing that picture of Chanie makes me both angry and sad that he was one of so many children that lost their lives too early because of some messed up need to control them from religions and government. Thank you for writing about him and acknowledging his story and the stories of everyone you have been introducing us to.
There is a graphic novel, animated film, and soundtrack about Chanie's story titled The Secret Path by Gord Downie released in 2016 by Simon & Schuster. The film is available on thesecretpath.ca for streaming.
Jill, I think that picture of Chanie will live in my heart forever. He puts a face to the massive cruelty of the boarding schools and the efforts to eradicate a culture, beginning with its most vulnerable members. Thank you for telling his story, and that of too many others.
I don't understand cruelty. I pride myself in being able to look at situations from different vantage points. But how can a religious ever rationalize being cruel to a child? The pictures married with the words are so moving.
I can undesrtand it because "spare the rod, spoil the child" was so pervasive in our famiily homes as much as in the pews. I can't condone it, but I understand it. It has less to do with religion and more to do with humans who demand power and control.
Yes, I think this is essential; as the efforts to educate were intended to "civilize" the primitives; from the perspective of missionaries and eventually homesteaders.
My lord, this is heartbreaking. This line -- "They were told never to say anything to anyone and not to talk to a white person who came to the school" puts me so in mind of Evangelical culture, controlled of course by patriarchal rules. "Don't speak the words," "Women, be silent in the church." Thank you for putting words to this, for telling it out loud. It needs to be told.
I remember seeing the sacred memorial of shoes, toys, bicycles, and clothes at the Indian Residential School Memorial Project in front of the Calgary City Hall when visiting last August. It hit like a gut punch. Reading your words about the same thing happening closer to our homes is just hard to fathom and reconcile...so much tragedy in the name of religion.
I didn't know about the Memorial Project in Calgary. Thanks for the info. It is hard to accept how many Indian Residential Schools there were across the US and Canada. Minnesota was home to sixteen of them.
A sad, sad story for these people, their children, and their culture. Thank you for sharing the information you've found, Jill. My heart breaks for the actions of the white invaders and the deep wounds they never tried to heal. It reminds me of what was done to dark skinned people in the southern US and what's still being done by people "of privilege" all over the world.
Today's writing takes my breath away. I guess because I have been following all along and expected to begin to learn some of the truths of the conditions for students and their schools. You research awes me. I don't like learning about the suffering of children, but I am not surprised. No matter who causes these evil practices, they carry a deep wound. It is always especially troubling to recognize practices from formalized religions. P.S. I've just read Mary Roblyn's comment, and I feel the same about the story of Chanie.
Thanks for following along each week. More than trauma, this is a story of survivance. Survivance is a word coined by Gerald Vizener to convey both resistance and survival.
Seeing that picture of Chanie makes me both angry and sad that he was one of so many children that lost their lives too early because of some messed up need to control them from religions and government. Thank you for writing about him and acknowledging his story and the stories of everyone you have been introducing us to.
There is a graphic novel, animated film, and soundtrack about Chanie's story titled The Secret Path by Gord Downie released in 2016 by Simon & Schuster. The film is available on thesecretpath.ca for streaming.
Jill, I think that picture of Chanie will live in my heart forever. He puts a face to the massive cruelty of the boarding schools and the efforts to eradicate a culture, beginning with its most vulnerable members. Thank you for telling his story, and that of too many others.
Thanks for reading and I recognize the deep emotions evoked by this history. I accept the past, even if I don't like it.
I don't understand cruelty. I pride myself in being able to look at situations from different vantage points. But how can a religious ever rationalize being cruel to a child? The pictures married with the words are so moving.
I can undesrtand it because "spare the rod, spoil the child" was so pervasive in our famiily homes as much as in the pews. I can't condone it, but I understand it. It has less to do with religion and more to do with humans who demand power and control.
It's def a generational control - but I wonder too, if it is not seeing them as fully human; primitive animals, not worthy of education.
Yes, I think this is essential; as the efforts to educate were intended to "civilize" the primitives; from the perspective of missionaries and eventually homesteaders.
My lord, this is heartbreaking. This line -- "They were told never to say anything to anyone and not to talk to a white person who came to the school" puts me so in mind of Evangelical culture, controlled of course by patriarchal rules. "Don't speak the words," "Women, be silent in the church." Thank you for putting words to this, for telling it out loud. It needs to be told.
Children are to be seen and not heard.
That was something I remember being told as a child.
Thanks for your observations about how it connects with your experiences with religion
I remember seeing the sacred memorial of shoes, toys, bicycles, and clothes at the Indian Residential School Memorial Project in front of the Calgary City Hall when visiting last August. It hit like a gut punch. Reading your words about the same thing happening closer to our homes is just hard to fathom and reconcile...so much tragedy in the name of religion.
I didn't know about the Memorial Project in Calgary. Thanks for the info. It is hard to accept how many Indian Residential Schools there were across the US and Canada. Minnesota was home to sixteen of them.
Wow, no words. Turns out there were 12 in North Dakota too.
South Dakota at Yankton and Pine Ridge. Many of their stories can be read in Denise K. Lajimodiere's book, Stringing Rosaries.
A sad, sad story for these people, their children, and their culture. Thank you for sharing the information you've found, Jill. My heart breaks for the actions of the white invaders and the deep wounds they never tried to heal. It reminds me of what was done to dark skinned people in the southern US and what's still being done by people "of privilege" all over the world.
Thanks for reading and reflecting on this history. I'm glad you see its relevance to the present moment.